Racial Classification and the Flawed Pursuit of Diversity: How Phantom Minorities Threaten "Critical Mass" Justification in Higher Education

Brigham Young University Law Review, 2007 by Thomas, Edward C

2. Miguel Sanchez

Miguel was born in Pocatello, Idaho to an upper middle class Mexican family that believed in education. He has always received good grades and performs well on standardized tests. His parents did not allow Spanish in the house because they wanted their family to blend in with the local culture. Miguel has mostly white friends but is darker-skinned and, like Juan, is very open about his ancestry.

Miguel is also a type of minority that should qualify for admission under critical mass because he will help promote cross-racial understanding and add to Grutter' s learning outcomes. The major difference between Miguel and Juan is social class.98 Miguel will add to the deconstruction of stereotypes because of his family's socioeconomic status and because, based on his test scores, he is likely to excel as much as his white counterparts.99 Depending on the composition of his law school class, many of Miguel's classmates may have never had significant exposure to Mexicans, particularly in an educational or scholarly environment. Upon interacting with Miguel, his classmates will see that not all Mexicans fall into stereotypical roles-i.e., cleaning houses or speaking with foreign accents;100 hopefully, they will see someone intellectually just like them-but racially distinct.

This distinction will promote critical mass educational benefits because Miguel looks different, which will open his classmates' minds to other perspectives and begin to erode racial stereotypes. While Miguel is not disadvantaged economically, his background and experiences may still provide valuable insights and a different viewpoint to non-minority classmates; for example, Miguel may have experienced actual incidents of racism and he may not have received the same encouragement as his white counterparts prior to entering law school.101 Thus, because Miguel has at least a strong likelihood of contributing to the diversity of viewpoints at his school, like Juan, his enrollment appears to fulfill the policies enumerated by the Supreme Court in determining a constitutionally significant critical mass.102

3. Christian J. Miller

Christian is from a small town in Iowa and is half Mexican. His father is a white accountant for a major accounting firm. Christian has always received good grades largely because his parents stressed the importance of school. Some of his siblings look full-blooded Mexican. While his skin is not very dark, he does tan well in the summertime and has cold black hair.

Christian becomes uncomfortable whenever someone asks about his heritage because he knows about racial stereotypes and does not want to be associated with them.103 He does, however, claim to be half Mexican when asked. He does not usually spell out his middle name, Javier, but when applying for law school he checked the Mexican box and made sure that his middle name was spelled out on all the applications. He was admitted with a partial scholarship from a Minority Lawyers Association even though his white counterparts with the same test scores may not have been admitted.